Population Growth Affects Land, Air and Sea; Enough Is Enough

Friday

Mar 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

If the human population keeps growing and compounding at its present pace, it has been estimated that by 2500 there will be only one square yard of standing room per person on Earth. It can barely sustain the present population.The arable land for growing food is dwindling, making way for golf courses, housing, shopping centers, parking lots and roads. The supply of drinking water is shrinking at an alarming rate. The oceans are being overfished, and the oxygen we breath is being depleted by the ripping out of thousands of acres of oxygen-generating trees every year.In our own state, the rainfall has been altered by rooftops and asphalt roads and parking lots. In years in the past, each cold front would produce some rain, from 1 inch to 4 inches or more. Now, we may get a trace. In the summer, it would rain 1 inch to 3 inches almost every day, now it may rain a few times in June and July.The city and county commissioners and state legislators, don't seem to think of anything but grow, grow and grow. They say that if they're not growing they're not prospering.We have prospered enough. There has to be a stopping place, but I'm afraid we've already reached and passed the point of no return.AMOS MERRITTWinter Haven